Five for Friday: One more Friday to go!!!

 

 

So this is my favorite activity of the Kindergarten year as I love to see the growth they have made in their fine motor skills! On the first day of Orientation, the kiddos have to draw me a self-portrait so that I can study them for the first day of school =) I keep these in a special folder tucked away until we use them in the last weeks of school in making their final portrait. I laminate them after they do a writing activity on the back about their year in Kindergarten (friends, special classes, likes, etc.). I think they are a wonderful keepsake!

 

I was so excited that our school supplies arrived because my new bookshelf came. Woot woot! I am always piling my books up on a table that get buried under everything else so I'm thrilled I can put the thematic ones on display =)

 

I absolutely loved this cartoon as it hit the nail on the head! I feel like I can barely tread water in August/September but am swimming in October. Heck , by January, I am golden! I definitely treasure April and May when it all comes together and you hear those sentences being read fluently. I love Kindergarten for that very reason.....it is the foundation of all things! You are teaching/reviewing the letters, developing sounds, reading words, and putting them into sentences. Everything they need to have in their educational careers =)

 

We made our lil graduates and I have to admit that I think I am going to keep them! The kids did such a great job that I want to have them on a bulletin board welcoming our new kinders in August.  I had them tell one thing they were proud of accomplishing this year. I liked the last one because you hope there is fun along the learning path too!

 

 

We have hit the last few weeks of school which means there are hardly any supplies left in the building...including tissues. I usually have the kids use a tissue when they use the dry erase boards. I found a bag of pom poms in my cabinet so I hot glued them to the markers for easy erasing. I don't know how long they will last but it was worth a try. We were working on fix it up sentences in preparation of our writing =)

 

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday: May 8th Linky Party

 

  

This video made me laugh so hard and I could really appreciate the message in it. I thought I would post this in honor of Mother's Day this weekend. I hope it puts a smile on your face too =)

 

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Into the ocean we went with our poetry unit.  We also read "There was an old lady who swallowed the sea" and "The story of fish & snail" before making our underwater portraits. Kids then wrote about how they would feel in the ocean.

 

We finally made it to the school walk-a-thon. The kids made these capes this week with our district logo. They each brought in an adult undershirt so we could spongepaint on a stencil and then cut them apart to be a cape. My teaching partner also got masks for them to wear as a surprise. I will post pics of the big event next week. The school raised over $14,000 in donations!

 

This was our Mother's Day craftivity. The kiddos used their fingerprints as the M&Ms and then we added a little writing prompt with a message for their moms. 

 

I am loving this weather!!I always tell my kids that it was the longest winter ever as soon as spring arrives. LOL! We have an awesome reservation by us where we can hike, walk, swim, etc. I think my husband snapped this first shot because you rarely ever see me sitting down. LOL! I can't wait to spend the summer days with my boys and do this often!

Have a fabulous weekend!!

Five for Friday!: May 1st Linky Party

 

It was a "bee"sy week in our classroom as we learned about these insects! We started the week out with our KWL anchor chart and then went on to read some of our non-fiction books from the library. The favorite by far was "The Magic School Bus: Inside a Beehive". The kiddos then made their very own bees out of construction paper and added the names of the body parts to make a diagram. They did a super job!

 

We also read some fictional stories and watched "The Magic School Bus" to watch The Frizz travel with the kids inside a bee hive. We used bubble wrapping to paint and apply onto paper to add some dimension to our honeycombs. We then showed representation of bees through 'can', 'have', and 'are'. I typed up their responses after our readings so that they could characterize the bees into the best categories. I love interactive projects =)

 

ODOB: One District One Book

 

One District, One Book, asks families to read a children’s novel as a community (everyone reading the same book, at the same time, over the course of a month).  All families, even those not very familiar with reading chapter books out loud, can discover and acquire the habit. One District, One Book is enabling. Ultimately, families will learn how to read books together on their own, independently.  You reach those families through your schools. That’s where your captive (and needy) audience awaits. But when each school – at your direction – agrees to adopt the program, they each still have the freedom to refine the program to suit their school, community, needs, capabilities, and resources.

 

My hubby surprised me with an early Mother's Day gift with the new sport iwatch. I have been looking for a Garmin to track my athletic activities and monitor my runs and he kept telling me to hold off. I wore this for a few days and it has to go back. I am already hyper and a bit OCD =) so when I worked out for 128 minutes (yes, over two hours) and it still told me at 9 pm that I had to burn more calories, I had to start vacuuming and doing laps around the house till I hit their desired number! You think I am joking but I am not. I am one of those people that will go for a speed walk with my husband only to return at 3.85 and have to walk down the street until I hit the exact 4.0 miles.  I am so serious. The watch is neat but you still need to have your phone on hand to sync with it. For instance, I went on a run but it couldn't map it because I didn't have my phone with me. I was under the impression that it worked solely on its own but it doesn't. I will still need to bring my phone with me on runs anyway to play my music so I will keep looking for the best athletic band that suits my needs. Any suggestions?

 

 

Our school has a walk-a-thon to help raise money for our PTO. It is the only fundraiser we do all year which is nice and the kids have a blast. Each grade level has a theme and Kindergarten is doing a superhero one this year. We asked parents to donate old t-shirts that were extra large on the kiddos. We sponge painted our district letter using a stencil and will cut around the shirt to transform into the cape. As a school, we walk over to our district track where all of the grades sit in the bleachers. Then they call each grade to walk two laps around the track to their theme music. There are prizes for EVERYTHING so the excitement continuously builds from the very first donation! We are excited to have this event next Friday and hoping for great weather. It is Ohio, though, so anything is possible =)

Have a great weekend!